The Ending
The Kelbrid ship's image grew larger and larger as we shot toward them. With thrusters on full the ship was buckling form the pressure being asserted onto the helm. I looked up from the navigation console as I heard Jake cursing and yelling. NO! The Kelbrid ship was veering slowly away from Rachel's path. My fingers danced over the buttons trying to turn us without losing momentum needed to inflict damage upon the other ship. Finishing the last combination of buttons I stared at the huge black bulk drawing closer. Sighing, knowing I was probably going to die, I sadly swept my gaze over the small screen that read the remaining time before impact.
Five.
Four.
Three.
I squeezed my eyes shut and hardened my grip on the edge of the console. Damn. Why this? Why now? I didn't want to die and yet I did. The hawk inside my mind found death to be counterproductive therefore it was something to avoid. My human side, the side I have tried to forget since the day my love was swept away with the girl I loved was in everyday torture. Everyday I woke up hoping to see her and to be crushed by the knowledge of Rachel's death. If I died I would finally see her again. There probably wasn't much chance that I would survive or any of us.
Two.
One.
The force that struck our ship was so great that I felt as if someone took a two by four and pounded me again and again. My teeth clashed together in my head. The upper half of my right arm felt pain soar through it as my body landed awkwardly on top of it. Against my will, I whimpered. The pain. It burned and tore though my flesh. I had to ignore it, just as I did when I was living with my uncle. Groaning and trying to mask the pain, I rolled over onto my side to be thrown down again as a heavy object fell onto me. Hot tears spilled past the dam I had been building up over the years. My arm screamed for attention; I ignored it. I sat up and pushed the object that had turned out to be Marco, off of me. He was unconscious for the time being. I noticed a small gash near the corner of his eyebrow. It was small enough not to cause any permanent damage but large enough to maybe cause concern. The gray t-shirt I had been wearing came off and I gingerly wrapped it around the wound Marco now sported. Turning away, the weight of my body was being balanced between my left arm gripping the side of the wall and my barely holding legs. I had to get to the main console; if any ruptures in the hull became to serious; life support wouldn't matter.
I made my way past Santorelli's body and resumed my seat at the console. Sweeping papers and scattered items off of the screens a mere glance at the damage reports already streaming in told me that in another two hours this ship would break apart. Life support was at 68%, navigational control was at 13%, weapons were down, and reserve power was at 20%. Using 1% of the reserved power I took a scan of the Kelbrid ship. Reports told me that their shields were all the way down to 6% whereas ours was at 32%. One round of weaponry from us would entirely diminish their shields allowing a surface hit. Our impact didn't cause any hull damage; but the shock wave emitted from our ship slamming against theirs caused ruptures and ripping inside the ship that would in turn bounce back to the hull. In simple terms the Yeerk and Kelbrid inhabiting ship took the brunt of the attack. Then it dawned on me. Our ship was going to break apart into nothing. Our party would have to board the Kelbrid ship eventually. Now we would have to physically fight the Kelbrids; if that was possible.
Drifting out of my stupor-like state, I grabbed a hypo-spray to wake the others. Since I knew where Marco had already been thrown I kneeled by him and gently pressed the instrument against the side of his neck. Specially prepared liquids flew through the hypo-spray into Marco's system. After only a few seconds Marco stirred then groaned loudly, "No, Clarice, just give me a few more seconds. . ."
Lifting an eyebrow, I wondered, who was Clarice? Probably Marco's new girlfriend. He seemed to go through them rather fast. Shaking Marco slightly by the shoulder I said, "Come on Marco, get up."
Looking around bright-eyed, "What, where, when, who?"
"Marco, get up you moron!" I cried out impatiently. We didn't have much time. For all I knew the ship could blow up in the next ten minutes by some unnatural phenomenon. My outburst got him up. With a bit of moaning, groaning, and complaining, Marco unsteadily climbed to his feet.
"Jish Tobias! Bite my head off. Hey! Were alive! Did we blow up those Kelbrid idiots?" I gave him a long cold stare.
Slowly I answered, "No, we didn't. And if we had. . . the whole mission to get Ax would be gone." Sometimes Marco didn't use all the functions in his head, but I did understand his enthusiasm in wanting to win the battle.
"Oh yeah. Sorry." After a brief awkward silence he asked me, "So should we go wake the others up?. . . What do we do now?" I let out a tired sigh.
"We have to get off of Rachel, this ship," I added upon Marco's questioning look. "Life support will fail after reserve power is gone - we have about two hours I'm guessing." Handing Marco the hypo-spray, I continued, "Here, take the hypo-spray. It's probably time for me to demorph; wake up Jake first. He can help me figure out a strategy for lowering their shields long enough for us to dock onto their ship." The very thought of boarding a ship with Yeerks on it made me shiver and the fact that there was another species, the Kelbrid, who of course we didn't know a thing about were also on there who seemed to hate our very existence.
Marco set out to finding everyone under all the rubble and junk strewn around the room. I began the demorphing process from my human self into a red tailed hawk, that I had come to think of as my normal body. Brown feathers etched their selves across my skin as talons sprung from my fingernails in a Wolverinish way. To make the process go by faster, I shut my eyes.
What the?! My eyes flew open and stared down at my arms. The now 3d feathers began to plaster against my arms. The tattooed pattern soon disappeared and my newly grown talons shrank back into nails. What was happening?! I had been concentrating on morphing not demorphing. Searching myself I found I was completely human. Had I surpassed the time limit that the Ellimist had granted me?
Reconcentrating I felt the familiar tingle, I guess you could say, as the process began again. NO!! Why couldn't I morph!? What was wrong?! A fear rose to my thoughts. What if I had gone past the two hours. Would I be stuck in this human form forever now? I couldn't give up now. Again, determined to resume my hawk form, I concentrated. Nothing. Not one thing. Not one feather appeared nor did I feel the accustomed tingling in my body.
I sank to the ground. Now not only was I without Rachel, I was without the gift of flight. Why was life so harsh with only me? I looked up and suddenly the world around me towered far above me. I sat up suddenly only to find out I couldn't sit up. My eyesight! I was hawk again! But how? Was this some sort of sick joke the Ellimist was playing on me. Most likely not. No, this wasn't the Ellimist's style to do these things even though he was one twisted being. Crayak? Ugh. Who cares? I'm a hawk again and that's all that mattered. Questions on this could come later, right now saving this ship was all that mattered.
I hawk hopped over to the Main Console, but halfway there I felt as if I was levitated halfway up in the air. I was higher up. What was happening now?!! Looking down I paled ten shades whiter. I was human once again. Maybe I did want to know what was happening. No one can just be morphed into a creature without concentrating on it or at least thinking about it. And certainly not at the rate that I was morphing from one body to another.
"Tobias, what's wrong?" Came a concerned voice jolting me out of my thoughts. I peered over my shoulder. Jake. I tried to reply then swallowed struggling to rid the dryness out of my throat. It didn't help.
"Nothing. Let's just get this ship carefully docked to the Blade Ship." Why had I done that!! I lied to Jake. The words just came out. Oh well, we were better off without knowing for right now. Later when we had time to worry we would discuss the peculiar morphing problem I've developed. Hopefully it wasn't what Marco had when he had been stressed out. But his morphs were just spliced.
"Do we have enough power to make it to the Blade Ship?"
"Yes we do. The only obstacle in the way is the shields that are withholding at 6%. One small shredder blast and it would be gone. Of course. . ."
Jake stared at me, "Of course what?"
"Of course it might have helped if the weapons were still operational." An exasperated sigh left Jake as he rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Then what can we do? Could we ram their ship again?"
"Yes, we could do that, but the structure and its design tells me that another ramming and-"
"And you can kiss your ever loving butt goodbye!" Whipping around Jake and I saw only Marco returning with Menderash, Santorelli, and Jeanne. "So in other words," Marco continued on, "We're stuck here until this ship decides to go bye bye on us?" All heads turned to me. Hmpf. Why did they always look at me? I wasn't the strategist, I only ran the ship.
Giving all an annoyed look, I exclaimed loudly, "I don't know okay? Unless you guys think up something else it looks like were stuck here."
Jake, sensing my distress, took command. "Okay Santorelli try to get all power rerouted to life support and enginery. Jeanne, we might need weapons at some point so try to get at least some small powered weapons online."
"I'll get right on it," came the heavy accented reply. Her and Santorelli left toward their separate stations. That left Marco, Jake, Menderash, and me.
"Tobias, scan for some compatible planets we can temporarily land on so we can make repairs. I have a feeling that the Blade Ship isn't going to be going anywhere for awhile. Marco, Menderash, and I will work on our possibilities." I had already sat down and begun my scans before Jake finished so I joined with them. "Okay everyone we need to think of some way to board their ship without using too much power or any weapons. Anyone got any ideas?"
There was a moment of silence before Marco began to hysterically laugh, "We're gonna all die aren't we? We don't have one freaking clue on what were going to do. Well this is just great. I always wanted to die in the middle of nowhere because of the fact that our ship is a piece of Yeerk crap and can't do a thing. At least can I eject myself like R2-D2 and C3-PO? But of course with our luck we'll just get tracked by the evil Yeerk Empire and the screwed up Kelbrid Ax thing." Jake just stared at Marco. Menderash looked upon Marco as if he had grew eyestalks. Me? I just sat there thinking.
"MARCO!!" I yelled out. Everyone around me jumped. "You're an absolute genius!!"
He cocked an eyebrow in the air, "I am?"
"Yes, you are!" I jumped up and practically ran to the console. I pulled open the statistics and found the exact thing I had been hoping for. "Guys the escape pods are still intact and fully functional!!" The rest of the guys had soon crowded around me. Yes! We finally had a plan to save our lives.
"Uh? Yeah so? If we eject ourselves into space the Yeerks could just blow us up while were helpless to fight back. Unless of course the Yeerks have now installed weaponry on escape pods, which I don't think they have." Didn't the idiots see what I did?
I gave a half hearted sigh, "No, were not going to be going into the escape pods - they will be our weapons," I exclaimed excitedly. Again Marco surprised our party again. Insane laughter poured from his mouth.
"Oh great!! Tobias has lost it! Gone loopey lu!! Oh well. . . I'd know you'd join me some time. Now would you mind stopping with these stupid things you're saying, just get down to business and explain how in hell we are getting out of here. Alive," he added as an afterthought. Taking a breath I typed in commands to bring in the safety pod controls. Immediately they popped into screen.
"Look," pointing to the screen I continued, "There are two escape pods and they are about a tenth of the size, each, of this ship. If we fire them at the Yeerk ship their shields are history and that's how we board." I looked around proudly.
Jake slapped his hand on my shoulder, "Job well done, Tobias. How soon can you get those escape pods fired off?"
"Right now, but it'd be better if Jeanne and the others are here with us because this is going to be one short flight and I'm sure it would be better if we exit this ship quickly." As soon as Jeanne and the others came into the command room with us, I pressed the button eject. Our ship gave a slight shudder as the first pod was launched out toward the Blade Ship then another as our second escape pod left our ship. Our small group crowded around the ships single window as we watched to two pods rocket toward their target. As the first one came into contact with the shield a huge explosion flew out. Then around the ship the light blue outline of what had to be the Blade ship's shield flickered. No. . . I had miscalculated I realized as small diamonds of sparks erupted from the shield and then abruptly the blue outline shimmered and disappeared. Jake turned to me. Marco turned too looking me in the face to be met with my look of shock.
No. . . We watched as the second pod speeded forward past the barrier which had once projected a top class force field. I had been wrong. . . . It didn't take two, but only one pod to bring down a 6% holding shield. Too late now. The pod hit into the side of the Blade ship and burst into sizzling orange flames lapping into space. The ship we stood in blew back a little ways from the explosion. Our sad group watched helplessly as the flame slowly disappeared and left burning red metal twisting viciously into the stretches of blackness.
I turned away from the wreckage and began to walk away defeated when I looked back once more. Wait one second. The explosion hadn't moved on to other compartments on the ship, that could mean that the ship still had a chance to survive a longer period than ours. Face it Tobias; our ship is going to be nothing but wreckage if we didn't get off of it.
This can't be good. Menderash whispered out stunned. Well I agree that hadn't gone out as planned but at least it wasn't the worst that could happen. For probably the last time, I resumed my spot at my console and started Rachel in the direction of the Blade ship.
"Tobias, what are you doing?" Jake demanded.
Bluntly I replied, "I'm saving our butts." For once Jake didn't question my judgement on the situation. Slowly Rachel crept across space coming upon the Blade Ship. Carefully I made sure to avoid the bare metal curving out like claws to catch us in its grasp. Rachel gave a small jolt as we came to the docking bay door. This ship wasn't in good shape at all which gave us even more reason to hurry.
With a small bump Rachel rested easily on the ground. Almost instantly I deactivated all power; damaged ships were so unpredictable even when immobile. Leaving our ship we had come to love over the years of being on her we set out exploring.
Jake began pouring info on what we should do next, "Everyone keep your eyes peeled for a door of some sort. If you hear anything battle morphs immediately. Jeanne, Menderash, and Santorelli just hang back." We started out towards the East wing of the hanger.
I walked along with Marco who was chatting, or rather arguing with Menderash, while Jake led us across the docking bay to discover a way to make it to the command center. We were lucky we had made it this far. I mean for goodness sake's; the chance's of someone surviving a ramming of a Blade Ship wasn't that great. We were all very extremely lucky to be here. I closed my eyes just simply relishing the fact of our success.
"Tobias!!!!" Came several cries. My eyes flew open and instinctively questioned, "What?" But I didn't need to their help to answer what was amiss. The particular morphing accident I had encountered was occurring again. Feathers sprouted and grew all around my body as my hands flattened to fit my now foot high body. Hawk. Human. Still Human. Stop this!! I screamed to know one in my head. Then I was hawk. My body fluctuated between being hawk and human until it decided on remaining human once more.
By now everyone had crowded around me. Out of all of them, Jake looked at me with the most concern, "Are you okay?" I stood up shakily then nodded uncertainly. What could be causing this? I certainly wasn't morphing. Plus there was no human way possible that I could achieve morphing time like that without becoming exhausted.
"Jish, Tobias. What caused that?" Marco asked rather more out of curiosity then concern; not that I cared. He had a good question as well. Unfortunately I didn't have a single clue.
Stuttering, "I don't k-know. It happened back on the ship too; right after you left me to find the others." Maybe stress was causing this. Yeah, I mean we could have died on that ship, maybe I just triggered something in my body. Hmph. I was lying to myself. Two seconds ago I was anything but stressed; just anticipated a little.
"Wi-" Jake began but immediately was cut of as the swish of a metal door opening sounded in the open hanger. The Kelbrid who took control of Ax, my shorm, stepped out with several smirking controllers following his lead. I was about to demorph to my own battle morph when I realized that that option probably wasn't the wisest. Each controller held a Dracon beam strongly in one hand. Jake stepped forward bravely.
"Whatever you are Kelbrid, you've picked the wrong fight. Release Ax." Brave words yes, but in reality they meant nothing. We were on the other end of the gun; literally. Slowly I rubbed the side of my head. A small headache had formed and I didn't want to create any fast actions that could have them blowing us up into stray atoms, although that might be a better fate then in their hands. The one reaction we got out of the Kelbrid was it twisting Ax's face into a morbid grin.
Then out of nowhere fire raced through my head. I crunched over in pain. Nothing I had ever felt compared to the agony that burned through me now. Not even when Taylor imprisoned me in that hellish Yeerk devise. Slowly the pain receded from my skull. Minute by minute I realized I was prone to the ground beneath me. No, I wasn't on the ground. I was flying! In my own meadow with the tree to the right where I always perched. Every single stray blade of grass was in place. The dull yellow and intense gray whirled in the seemingly endless field that had been my home during the war. My body relaxed against the cool breeze flowing in then my mind went into shock as I saw a figure below me bounding through the clumps of grass and weeds.
RACHEL!! It was her. She was alive!! But how? I saw her die on the view screen of the Yeerk ship. But there she was; happier then ever running toward my tree. No! There was another bird there! Sitting in my place was a red tailed hawk that almost looked like me. Get out! I called to it to no avail. No matter, I could see Rachel again. Finally. Had I died? Was this heaven? Who cared? Rachel was here and that's all that mattered. FLASH!!
Gone. Everything was gone. No Rachel. No meadow. No nothing except gray. Why was this happening to me? Was I going insane?
"Tobias!" I jerked up awkwardly. Looking up I saw Jeanne holding me in her lap. The others were concentrating on the Kelbrid in front of us but still casting looks towards me. Jeanne was the first to notice my awakening due to the fact of me resting in her lap. "Are you okay?" She asked worried, "One second you were standing then the next you were on the ground screaming. What happened?" My eyes glazed over. What was happening? First the odd morphing problem and now seeing Rachel.
Just wanting to be left alone, I murmured, "Dunno."
Is the weak little human ill? What a pity. I ignored him and watched interesting as everyone around me paled a five to six shades including the Kelbrid and the controllers. Jeanne backed away from me quickly. What had happened now? Had I grown an extra nose?
Menderash inquired in a hushed voice, "Where did he go?" What did he mean where did I go? I was right here!
What kind of human trick is this! The Kelbrid boomed. Why did they act as if I wasn't even here? The ground began to shake around me and as if a chasm had opened up in the ground I started to fall away from everyone. Everyone was looking so distant. Wait. Marco was coming after me now. . . He was getting closer then everyone was coming except the controllers. Menderash rushed past me to the right as the rest of us fell straight downward. There was a pounding wind that bellowed in all of ears drowning out any sound that may have escaped from our lips. As we fell I saw Ax or rather the Kelbrid was in pain and a eccentric blue form shot out of Ax's body leaving him limp.
We could all see the end of the tunnel now; entirely black. I was the first to reach it and it felt like a million icy fingers had passed over every square inch of my body; even the inside. Then there was a calming blackness. The next time I awoke I was covered with pine needles on a forest ground.
Author's Note:
Did you like it?? This of course is only the first chapters and I will be posting up more chapters if and only if I get some type of reviews. So where did the Animorphs end up?? Is Ax free now? Come back again. *Walks away eating Twizzlers*